Siddhartha eBook

The myth had also reached the Samanas in the forest,
and also Siddhartha, and also Govinda, slowly, drop
by drop, every drop laden with hope, every drop laden
with doubt. They rarely talked about it, because
the oldest one of the Samanas did not like this myth.
He had heard that this alleged Buddha used to be
an ascetic before and had lived in the forest, but
had then turned back to luxury and worldly pleasures,
and he had no high opinion of this Gotama.

“Oh Siddhartha,” Govinda spoke one day
to his friend. “Today, I was in the village,
and a Brahman invited me into his house, and in his
house, there was the son of a Brahman from Magadha,
who has seen the Buddha with his own eyes and has
heard him teach. Verily, this made my chest
ache when I breathed, and thought to myself:
If only I would too, if only we both would too, Siddhartha
and me, live to see the hour when we will hear the
teachings from the mouth of this perfected man!
Speak, friend, wouldn’t we want to go there
too and listen to the teachings from the Buddha’s
mouth?”

Quoth Siddhartha: “Always, oh Govinda,
I had thought, Govinda would stay with the Samanas,
always I had believed his goal was to live to be sixty
and seventy years of age and to keep on practising
those feats and exercises, which are becoming a Samana.
But behold, I had not known Govinda well enough,
I knew little of his heart. So now you, my faithful
friend, want to take a new path and go there, where
the Buddha spreads his teachings.”

Quoth Govinda: “You’re mocking me.
Mock me if you like, Siddhartha! But have you
not also developed a desire, an eagerness, to hear
these teachings? And have you not at one time
said to me, you would not walk the path of the Samanas
for much longer?”

At this, Siddhartha laughed in his very own manner,
in which his voice assumed a touch of sadness and
a touch of mockery, and said: “Well, Govinda,
you’ve spoken well, you’ve remembered correctly.
If you only remembered the other thing as well, you’ve
heard from me, which is that I have grown distrustful
and tired against teachings and learning, and that
my faith in words, which are brought to us by teachers,
is small. But let’s do it, my dear, I
am willing to listen to these teachings—­though
in my heart I believe that we’ve already tasted
the best fruit of these teachings.”

Quoth Govinda: “Your willingness delights
my heart. But tell me, how should this be possible?
How should the Gotama’s teachings, even before
we have heard them, have already revealed their best
fruit to us?”

Quoth Siddhartha: “Let us eat this fruit
and wait for the rest, oh Govinda! But this
fruit, which we already now received thanks to the
Gotama, consisted in him calling us away from the Samanas!
Whether he has also other and better things to give
us, oh friend, let us await with calm hearts.”

On this very same day, Siddhartha informed the oldest
one of the Samanas of his decision, that he wanted
to leave him. He informed the oldest one with
all the courtesy and modesty becoming to a younger
one and a student. But the Samana became angry,
because the two young men wanted to leave him, and
talked loudly and used crude swearwords.